Validation of the Beliefs about Children’s Adjustment in Same-Sex Families Scale in Italian University Students

ABSTRACT

Assessing attitudes toward same-sex parenting has important implications for both intervention and prevention programs designed to foster the tolerance and normality of sexual and family diversity. Few empirically validated measures of rejection of same-sex parenting have been developed. The current study examined the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Beliefs about Children’s Adjustment in Same-Sex Families Scale, a 14-item scale distributed in two subscales that measure direct and subtle rejection toward same-sex parenting, for its use in assessing heterosexual people’s attitudes toward same-sex parents in Italy. The sample consisted of 344 Italian heterosexual university students (113 men) with a mean age of 20.48 years (SD = 1.60). The results showed that the scale has a good factor structure (via confirmatory factor analysis) and satisfactory reliability and acceptable criterion-related validity. Therefore, the BCASSFS can be used to measure opposition toward gay and lesbian parenting in the Italian context.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual prejudice
• same-sex parenting
• gay and lesbian rights
• homonegativity
• attitudes
• contact
• etiology
• Reliability

Compliance with Ethical Standards

*Research involving Human Participants

*Author Contributions: L.B., D.F., M.S., and C.L. conceptualized and wrote the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.